Different Heroes
by HunterTarot
Summary: In a alternate universe, the heroes of Pokemon that we have come to know and love never existed, and, after a vision seen by all psychics around the world, having seen the events that will occur since the heroes never existed, seek out to train young trainers to someday save the world from future events.
1. Chapter 1

The world of Pokemon has always needed Trainers. While it is true that the nature of the world revolves around the powers of Pokemon and their extraordinary powers, many of the marvels of the world wouldn't have been possible without the combined efforts of humans and Pokemon. Without those brave enough to tame the creatures of the world, the history of the world would be drastically different.

To carry on the spirit that burned bright within the former generations of trainers, the Pokemon Leagues pooled funds together to begin the foundation of an academy to train future generations of trainers. It was decided that the foundations for this auspicious academy would be placed in the Sevii Islands, an archipelago of islands far off the southern coasts of the Kanto region. It was sparsely populated, and there were several islands to pick from.

In the end, it was decided to build the academy on the island known as Birth Island, located between the Fortune and Quest Islands. It had plenty of open space, and was ripe to be expanded and inhabited upon. Thanks to the on-going support of the Leagues, the academy was finished in just under two years, and was open to the public a month after it was finished. It was named the Prestigious Sevii Islands Academy for Trainers, or, to shorten it down, the P.S.I.A.T.

Despite the name, the facility wasn't designed for pokemon trainers alone: it was actually designed to handle trainers, coordinators, breeders, and the various other professions and sub-categories of trainers that the world had to offer. To handle an estimated few thousand students, the grounds of the academy took up much of the originally provided land on Birth Island. The Island itself had been expanded to handle any further expansions of the Academy, but it had been mostly unused by the facility.

In concurrence with the original idea for the founding of the Academy, there was another reason for the creation of this grand project.

For many Pokemon Trainers, psychic powers are a commodity, this includes some members of the various Elite Fours and Gym Leaders, and many of them were known for having premonitions, but never all of them at the same time. That was until recent years. Every psychic Elite Four, Gym Leader, and powerful psychic Trainer had a simultaneous vision of the future. All together, they saw several events: the awakening of legendary pokemon that would destroy the world, evil organizations that were either out to bring about the bringing the arrival of these pokemon or take over the world, untold amounts of destruction, and countless people and pokemon hurt.

But for every dark premonition, there came a peaceful resolution. They saw a group of young trainers rise to the challenge of the several atrocities aforementioned, and return victorious. The convening of these psychics with the Leagues, in accordance with the original inspiration for the founding of the Academy, convinced the Leagues to found the Academy to find this young group of trainers to prevent these disasters. It was from then on recommended that all young children whose parents where either in a training profession, or knew their child was wanting to go on a journey or enter a pokemon related career, and was at the age of ten or up, to be signed up for the academy when their parents felt they were ready.

While it was occasionally a traditional custom to set out on a journey at 10, often times parents withheld their children from doing so, for fearing something happening to them. On many cases, this was a justified thing to do, because more and more first year trainers went missing or were hurt every year.

And so, a few years passed, and the Leagues waited with baited breath for a sign of the group of destined trainers.

Years of students graduated, with no luck, but the spirit of the dream that built the academy held strong as the campus grew little by little, and the population of the students and faculty grew little by little with it.

And that's where our story begins.

It was around the time of the graduation of the 13th graduating class, and the upperclassmen were abuzz with excitement. This time of year was always when students were happier than usual. The feeling of your years of learning coming to a peak and being sent out into the world with your friends on a journey would just have about anyone in a good mood.

Technically however, this was the fourth graduation this year, albeit it being the official, senior graduation. All students had the ability to call for an early graduation test. While this was a very unorthodox way of graduating from the P.S.I.A.T., it was the quickest. While you were required to at least wait until the first week of school was over, you could call for an early grad. test whenever you wanted to. Three students this particular year had decided to go ahead and graduate instead of waiting for their senior year to finish, and had gone ahead and began their journeys.

Now, as for the regular graduation, there was two tests that were required before graduation. Granted these tests had an 87% chance of success, so they were fairly difficult to fail, it wasn't unheard of for some students to bomb the tests.

The first included a written test, which consisted of basic to intermediate level questions about all the necessities a trainer needs to know on their travels, a select few geography questions about the myriad of regions, and questions pertaining to Pokemon that the students had been exposed to earlier in the year. This test was to determine a student's level of readiness to go out into the real world, and to get a feel for the general amount of knowledge they have retained. The second test is a mock battle test against members of the faculty that handle the Pokemon who resided on the island, and were used for lesson purposes, help on the academy grounds, and to be given away as starters to graduating students.

These Pokemon resided in a fairly large ranch area behind the main building of the school, that was handled by professional Pokemon caretakers. While it was as large as facilities maintained by Pokemon research labs, daycares, and breeding facilities, it wasn't as watched over. The Pokemon who resided there were free to come and go as they pleased because the Leagues didn't want Pokemon to be forced to do something they didn't want to. However, only one or two Pokemon ever left the ground of the school, and most never left until they were given to a student.

In fact, the ranch is where the tale truly begins.

For if one were to look closely, one would see a student interacting with one of the Pokemon. One wouldn't guess by just looking at them, but she would soon become one of the saving graces of the world. She wore what appeared to be a rather large purple hood that covered her short brown hair and that had a black dot on the forehead and black cat ear-like horns coming out of the top, with some of the hood sitting on her shoulders, and covering the very top of a black top that stops an inch or two above her belly, a pair of slightly tattered, black jean shorts with a little bit of purple lining showing, black combat boots that went up to her shins, and toted around a black, over the shoulder, carrying bag with a purple pokeball design on it.

Her name was Kat, age 18.

She was in the graduating class of this year, and had started attending at the P.S.I.A.T. at age 14. She was a very... unorthodox type of person. She had a very odd personality that tended to scare the light of heart away, and could honestly have cared less.

Kat was one of the more odd students, not necessarily in a bad way. She got along with most of the teachers, and her work ethic was something to at least appreciate. She also tended to spend more time with the Pokemon on the ranch more than she spent time with the other people in her class. Granted, this applied to several other students so it wasn't completely odd, but it was something you'd have to look twice at.

And right now, Kat was talking to her favorite little friend, Squirtle. This particular Squirtle had come to the island the same day she had, and they had met on that exact same date as well, after Kat decided to ditch the tour group and wander around to the Pokemon care facility. They hit it off almost instantly, and every day since then, for the past four years, Kat made it a point to go to the ranch and visit her little blue friend. And now, on the day of the graduation exams, she made it a point to get pumped up by visiting Squirtle.

She was crouched down to Squirtle's level, her fists up, in a sort of mock boxing stance. She threw a fake punch to Squirtle's left, he dodged, and sent a fake punch to her right. This was supposedly a sort of 'Fight On' routine that the two had come up with, but nonetheless, it still looked like children's pretend boxing.

"Alright, my little turtle-y friend, I've got a good feeling about these tests. Cause there is no chance I'm failing this and being stuck here for another week, while Hunter, Tyler, and Bryson run off and get a head start while I have to wait to take a re-test." Kat said, moving her head away from a uppercut from Squirtle.

As she said, to take a re-test, much like an early graduation test, you had to wait a week after the grad. exams had passed before you could take it again. This was suppose to allow for a second chance at cramming any information or skills the student had misplaced the first time around.

Also, while it wasn't a requirement to return home once the school year was over (most students who failed stayed a week or so anyways to avoid telling their parents), you were only given two weeks to catch the ferry unless you had a year-round dorm room for your stay at the academy….. Which Kat did, but she still didn't want to spend her time on the island when she could be off, having an adventure with her friends. Anyone who could say otherwise was to be ostracized.

In her mind at least.

"Squirtle squirt!" The little, red shelled Pokemon said. The duo had developed a sort of connection that they could at least understand what the other said….. Which was easier for Squirtle, but he never told Kat that. And right now, Squirtle was wishing her the best of luck on the exams, silently wishing that he would become Kat's starter.

Their little mock fight was interrupted by the sound of the annoyingly peppy school broadcaster coming on the intercom. Some of the students a couple years ago had gotten bored of the teachers announcements that came over the intercom, so they convinced the faculty to allow for a radio club to put a new spin on things.

Unfortunately, this new spin included the most peppy, energetic, school spirit infused 12 year old girl that ever walked the face of the planet. Even if she was talking normally, as she was now, the voice still grated on many people's ears.

"Attention all students taking the graduation exam, you have approximately 5 minutes to reach your assigned classroom! I repeat, all students taking the graduation exam…"

At this point, Kat had jumped up in surprise, just in time for one of Squirtle's fake punches to impact with her shin. "Squirtle?" Squirtle looked up, giving his best friend a most quizzical look. Kat's eyes darted to the exit to the outside area, a fence gate that most of anyone could open. She patted Squirtle's head quickly, and said, "I'll be seeing you soon, Squirtle! I gotta get to my classroom!" With that, she ran with a speed that Squirtle had never seen out of her, quickly opening and closing the fence gate, and running off around to the front of the school.

Awaiting her, were two male students, who, unwittingly, also held the future of the world in their hands.

The first one wore what appeared to be a checkered fedora, meaning that it had a black and white chessboard pattern on it, which sat atop his brown hair, with a yellow band wrapping around where the hat met the brim and a purple button clipped onto the band, a white zip-up shirt that had a simple gray tank-top underneath and a black, open long-sleeve shirt over it with a small collar and the sleeves rolled up, a black of black vinyl pants that had a slight grayish tint to them, and a pair of black high tops. He also wore a pair of black glasses, seeing as how he was nearsighted. He was Hunter, age 16.

The second one's attire consisted of a orange jacket with a large fire-type symbol on the back, with the collar of a red shirt visible underneath the jacket, a pair of blue jeans with a few tatters in them, and a pair of black combat boots. His name was Tyler, age 15.

They were both friends with Kat, and had agreed to go to their classroom at the same time. However, they were starting to get a little nervous upon that demonic excuse for a radio voice warned them about the time frame in which they had left to wait for her without being late. Tyler was occupying himself by looking for any sight of a large purple hood with black cat ears, and Hunter was tapping his foot, arms crossed. "I don't know about this. Unless she is literally hauling her butt here, I don't think she'll make it in time." Tyler worryingly said. It's not that Tyler was that worried about her getting her late, he was more worried about being late and not being able to take the test.

Still tapping his foot, Hunter turned his attention to Tyler, saying to the blonde, "Quit your Mother Henning. That's my job. And don't worry, she'll get here in time. I have faith….. That and she'll bust the doors down to get here on time if needed be."

It was at this point that they heard an audible running noise coming from around the left corner of the building. They both turned their attention to the sound of the running, Tyler stepping forward out of the gate to the building, and immediately regretted his decision

Because Hunter was in fact right.

Kat wasn't going to be late, and she'd do about anything to see to that. When she turned the corner and saw a person standing exactly in her way, she did the first thing that came to mind to get rid of her momentum.

She jumped up, the momentum still carrying her forward, and promptly drop kicked Tyler, sending him sprawling onto the ground, and her landing on her back.

Tyler, a little peeved about being kicked for both doing nothing and for being sent onto the ground, got up quickly, no real damage done, and immediately asked, "What the heck did you do that for, Kat?!" The older girl looked up, the most innocent smile that her brain could come up with donned on her face, responding with, "I had to get rid of my momentum, so I wrapped it up in a kick, and I gave it to you." … Both of the younger boys stared at Kat for a good few seconds, unable to quite think of a way to respond to the older girl's thought process.

Both went to say something, but were interrupted by the Purugly-claws-on-chalkboard voice herself coming over the intercom again, giving yet again, another warning.

Only this time, it was a one minute warning.

All three member of the trio all looked at each other, each having that look of shock on their face. No other words were said, as all three ran inside the school, their literal futures on the line.

Approximately a minute later, the loud sound of the bell on top of the school chiming resounded throughout the whole of the school grounds, and three exhausted students by the names of Kat, Hunter, and Tyler were sitting in their seats in their classroom, having just made it. The teacher, ignoring the audible, loud panting coming three particular students, silently passed out their test papers, leaving them all face down. Once all the papers had been distributed, the teacher walked back up the board and announced the specifics of the test.

"For those of you who have been in this class from the start, I'd just like to say, congratulations. But, sentimentalities aside, this is how this is going to go. This is the first out of two tests you will be taking. This is a written exam on all the practical knowledge that has been taught to you in your time here in this school. For those of you who either slacked off, or are taking this in a lower year as a early grad. test, this test may be that much harder for you." Pointing to the PC on his desk, the teacher continued, "When you have completed the test, you will bring it up to me, and my computer will automatically grade it, and if you have a passing grade, then you will go to the gymnasium where you will participate in the battle exam. Are there any questions?"

No student raised their hands, either of out of confidence or out of exhaustion. Well, the exhaustion only applied to three students in particular, but that was beside the point. The teacher walked over to his desk, and sat down. "You have an hour at most to complete the test. I expect that most of you will finish this in under 30 minutes, but the time limit is for those of whom who like to take their time on the test, are slow writers/readers, or are struggling."

The teacher then typed something onto his keyboard, and a timer for an hour began ticking down on the screen. "The time begins now. I wish all of you the best of luck."

Once their teacher had given the students the green light, all of the face-down tests were flipped over, and everyone quickly wrote down their names and began to work on the exam. Hunter began reading over the questions, quickly scanning and answering the ones with answers that were obvious, and then went back and began answering the ones that required more reading. He silently read to himself, "Which of these items heals the most health to a Pokemon, and does NOT heal status ailments?"

The options were Hyper Potion, Full Heal, Lava Cookie, and Full Restore. This one would be easy to miss if one didn't think it through. Running through the effects in his head, he realized that Hyper Potion was the only option, seeing as how all three other answers cured all status ailments. Quickly jotting down the answer, he began to wonder in the back of his head how his friends were doing.

Kat and Tyler had performed a similar strategy to Hunter, seeing as how they had a study group going whenever there was a big test coming up, and answered obvious questions first.

Kat was all finished with the obvious, and was nearing halfway on the more advanced questions, as was Tyler. However, they both stalled when it came to a certain question, which Hunter quickly followed, their brains whirring to a halt.

All three read aloud, incredulously, "Which of these Pokemon has the best defensive properties: Shuckle, Sableye, Tyranitar, and Steelix?"

Now this was a question that all three had failed before on a previous test, causing all of them to study the defense value chart on all known Pokemon, in an attempt to commit it to memory. They could recall that Sableye was at the bottom of the list, and that Steelix was the second best, but for the life of them, they couldn't recall if Shuckle or Tyranitar was the best in the defense category.

Now Tyler, being Tyler, had a very interesting preconceived notion about Pokemon he favored. He quite frankly held them in a regard almost more so than himself. And he regarded himself very highly most of the time. And Tyler just so happened to favor Tyranitar, so, with no other idea, he selected Tyranitar as his answer.

Hunter and Kat on the other hand did not hold Tyranitar's on such a pedestal, although both could agree that they were quite a formidable Pokemon. Therefore, they chose Shuckle as their answers.

The trio continued to answer the questions, being about ¾ of the way done, when a familiar face to them got up and headed to the teacher's desk. Clad in black, thick armed glasses, a black open jacket with red highlights, a dark red t-shirt with the symbol for dark types on the front, a pair of blue, skinny jeans, and a pair of black and white sneakers, and a mop of auburn hair to top it off, stood Bryson.

Now, a little history lesson is in order. Whilst, all four of these students were in the same class year, there was a small age curve between them: Tyler was 15, being the youngest, Hunter was 16, the second youngest, Bryson was 17, the second oldest, and Kat, the oldest, a solid 18.

Now, Hunter, Tyler, and Bryson knew each other from the start of the first year, having met on the ferry to the now occupied Birth Island, and didn't meet Kat till around the midterms of said year.

To be completely correct, Bryson met her first after meeting her in the ranch and seeing her interacting with her Squirtle. Afterwards, after a short conversation, he introduced her to Hunter and Tyler, and they had been a tight knit group ever since.

However, at the beginning of their fourth and final year, Bryson had become suddenly more cocky over their summer vacation. It was unknown what cause this change in behavior, but it never went farther than would be considered a problem, so no one turned a head to it after a while. Even the teachers, who had known Bryson for years, adapted to this change in persona rather quickly. Some even went so far to say, "Surprised it didn't happen sooner,", although no one knew quite exactly what they meant. He had become far more suited to a solo type of studying and, during practice battles, had become dead set on utterly dominating his opponents.

Afterwards, the now trio, being respectful friends, let him have things his way, and told him that if that was how he wanted to work from now on, then he could have it that way as long as he still had time to hang with them on occasion.

And after this, everyone got along rather swimmingly. The only downside to the agreement between the four, was that they went from a square to a triangle, a quadro to a trio, a fabulous foursome to a thrilling threesome, so on and so forth. While they often jokes like, "Well, the triangle is the strongest shape in nature," they still missed having their mini-crowd of four to huddle up in.

Anyways, back to present time, Bryson turned his paper into the teacher, being the first one to get up.

The teacher regarded the red head before taking the paper, and running it through the scanner attached to the computer, which quickly read all the answers on the paper. After calculating the ratio of right to wrong, Bryson's score was displayed on the screen as a score of 97 out of a possible 100. He was quickly accoladed by the teacher, who gave him a quick pat on the back, and sent him on his way to the gymnasium to participate in the battle portion the exam, in which he was almost a guaranteed winner, having an above par knack for battles.

After the auburn, former team member had shut the door behind him, the collective eyes of Hunter, Kat, and Tyler flared with a renewed vigor.

They had made it a point that they at least wanted to see the end of Bryson's match for the battle exam, and they weren't going to miss it because he finished first. Kat finished first, quickly hurrying up to the front desk with a out of the ordinary vigor, enough to make her large hood bob up and down some. She quickly turned in the paper, a stray lock of brown hair giving her a bit of an unkempt look to match her hurry.

The teacher had heard their agreement the day prior, and having grown somewhat attached to the four students, quickly nodded to Kat and ran her paper through the computer. The paper was graded at the same speed as Bryson's, but to Kat, it was taking a lifetime. All too soon, or all too slowly to Kat's perception, the screen was filled with the bright text on the screen telling her that she had made a solid 95 out of 100.

The exasperated girl let out a sigh, and got a thumbs up from the teacher, to which she gave one back, grinning. She quickly rushed out the door, and as soon as the door had shut behind her, the remaining two members of the trio were fast upon their teacher.

They had finished as soon as Kat had gotten her grade, and got up to the front as she departed out the door. The teacher barely had the time to look in their direction before both Hunter and Tyler's papers were inches in front of his face. He was stunned at how quietly both of them had rushed up to the front at once, but merely shrugged his shoulder, and put both of their papers into the scanner, so that both would be graded at about the same time.

Both Hunter and Tyler were figuratively biting their nails, terrified at what their scores might be, and if they could catch up to Kat and watch Bryson's match. The two boys were fairly certain of a decent grade, but they were still worried, as all students are when they receive the results of a big exam, especially one as important as a graduation exam.

Hunter's came up first, bearing with it a score of 94 out of 100, granting the fedora-clad student a sigh of relief. Tyler's came shortly after, gifting him with a grade of 93 out of 100, which allowed the blonde to join his friend in a sigh of relief and happiness. However, their bout of joy and relief was short lived, as their teacher, although glad for the young men, grinned, rolled his eyes, and pointed to door, trying to remind them had somewhere else to be. The two's eyes, having been reminded, widened in shock for a second, before giving a thankful look to their teacher and running one beside the other, getting stuck in the door, one trying the force the other out, before both stumbled forward out the door in a loud fall.

The teacher merely chuckled lightly to himself, before muttering barely audibly, "The future's a bright one, isn't it?" It was unknown whether he meant his words to be taken jokingly or seriously, but either way, the teacher didn't how correct he was.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Hunter and Tyler had recovered and gotten off the floor, Kat had made it to one of the sets of double doors that led down to the gymnasium.

The gym had a staircase that led down to the actual area, which was large enough to hold four, lined-out battling areas. The sides were lined with bleachers that could handle the student populace and a couple hundred more, and there was enough side area for generic exercises that were done in P.E. The gymnasium was actually technically the first basement level, with two storage levels below it, which were only accessible via a faculty only access lift that had a stop on all three upper floors of the school and on the gym floor.

After making the relatively short run down the stairs, she was in a hurry after all, Kat made it down to the gym floor during the middle of a battle. The hooded girl, stopping temporarily for a breath, took a second to realize that the battle she saw was not her friends'.

From what she could guess, it was a student from another class, since Bryson was the first to leave from their room. It was then she heard the all too recognizable sound of a pokeball releasing it's occupant.

She looked over to see a battle exam being taken in the practice battle area on the far side of the room. The first thing she noticed was that the two Pokemon fighting happened to be a Gastly and a Metapod. Kat made a mental note that this wasn't a good matchup for the Metapod, and this point was further emphasized when she looked and realized who was the Gastly's handler.

There stood a cockily grinning Bryson, knowing the position his opponent was in, and she knew full well that he was going to take advantage of the situation. The proctor realized this as well, and cursed his luck for getting stuck with, not only the most victory driven student on the campus, but also the most victory driven student with a Pokemon that he could not actually fight against.

His Metapod only knew Tackle and Harden, so there was no physical way that his Pokemon could fight it's ghostly adversary. But that wasn't going to stop him from at least drawing it out some. That, and if Bryson's Gastly only knew lick, then it was going to come down to whoever ran out of energy first. So his strategy was going to have to use Harden to make Gastly run out of energy by using futile attacks.

Bryson, his grin showing that he believed that his victory had been announced, exclaimed, "I think you should go ahead and give up! Not to disrespect a faculty member, but no matter what you do, even if you try to tank Gastly's moves, you'll lose eventually!" The proctor gritted his teeth.

The nerve of this kid!

He'd have to show him that sometimes things don't always go as expected.

"If you're so confident kid, then you can have the first move." As they were having this exchange, Kat noticed that the first battle that she saw was ending, the student coming out the victor. She saw the proctor send the student off with the Pokemon and it's respective Pokeball, along with a slip of paper that had a number on it, and told him to go wait on the bleachers until all the exams had finished, telling him to get acquainted with his new partner in the meantime.

Once the student had sit down with his new Pokemon, a Rattata she noticed, she heard a loud crash behind her that signalled the arrival of her two friends. She turned around to face the tangled mess of arms and legs that used to be Hunter and Tyler, who had appeared to have a small tumble down the stairs after running too fast at the same time to catch up with her. She helped the two up, and sighed lightly. "I can't take you two anywhere, can I?" She questioned, jokingly shaking her head disapprovingly.

Both of the younger boys looked like they had ran, and tripped, a marathon over the entire school grounds just to catch up to her, with ragged breathing to match. Hunter's signature hat lay on the ground, with it's owner hunched over, catching his breath, whilst cleaning his glasses. Tyler, on the other hand, looked like he was half about to lay down on the floor for a minute or two.

Kat merely let out a series of "tsk"'s at her two friends, grinning lightly at seeing the state of the boys after rushing to catch up to her. Compared to the normally very lax lifestyle of Hunter and Tyler, seeing them rush about anywhere showed how they dealt with things they were serious about. And from the look of them, they were very serious about seeing their friend's battle. After the bespectacled boy and his blonde compatriot had regained their regularity, and one regained having a hat on, they turned their attention to Kat. Hunter, having not yet taken in the view of the room, asked, "Did we miss Bryson's match? For all the fuss, I should sincerely hope not."

Tyler nodded, agreeing with Hunter, until the trio all heard a yell of frustration from Bryson's proctor before Kat could respond to the question.

The three non-combatants turned their attention to the battle between Bryson and his now losing proctor. It turned out that Bryson's Gastly had not only known Lick.

It knew two other moves that Bryson was currently using to dominate his test administrator to a enraging degree. The proctor's Metapod had it's eyes closed, signalling that it was asleep, and a light purple fog was being released from Gastly's mouth, which was filtering around the area where Metapod was sleeping. Bryson's cocky grin had morphed into a haughty smile, chuckling at his opponent's frustrations. "What, were you hoping that Gastly only knew Lick or something?" Bryson asked, his voice taking on the tone of someone who had successfully pulled the wool over someone's eyes.

"I bet Hypnosis and Smog weren't in your plans, now where they?" Gritting his teeth, the administrator let out a growl, trying to regain his composure.

"So your entire plan was to put Metapod asleep from the beginning so it couldn't use Harden and take the Smog because you knew Lick was ineffective." He took a look back to his Metapod, which was now taking continuous damage from breathing in the Smog, not showing any signs of waking up yet.

Bryson's chuckling grew louder for a second, before his expression suddenly turned serious for a second. "I'd recommend forfeiting now to prevent your Pokemon from getting hurt any more than it already is. If this keeps up, your Metapod will take more damage than is entirely necessary."

This line of thinking threw the enraged proctor for a loop. A second ago Bryson was looking and sounding as if he was more than content to annihilate the faculty member with no remorse, but now, he sounded quite the opposite. He sounded very serious, and seemed to be more concerned that the opponent's Pokemon was fine than bragging about his sure victory.

On the sidelines, this sudden change in behavior didn't cause a similar reaction to Bryson's friends. Since they were the ones that spent the most time (compared to others at least), they had noticed that Bryson's change in personality had some interesting quirks to it. Like how he hated excessive damage on his opponent's Pokemon. Despite his complete domineering battle style, Bryson cared very much about Pokemon, and despised dealing more damage to them than he felt necessary.

Tyler, shifting around in his spot in anticipation due to waiting for his battle while watching Bryson's, gave his two cents on the situation, "Truth be told, I was half expecting this to happen. I wasn't expecting the proctor to be so badly beat, but this doesn't surprise me."

"Of course not. Bryson cares more for his and other's Pokemon than anything else. It shouldn't surprise people if they know the true meaning of friendship with Pokemon," Hunter said, nodding towards the fight. Kat shrugged but agreed and led her two friends to the bleachers to await their turns for the second stage of exams.

Begrudgingly, they saw Bryson's proctor raise his hand, and although they couldn't hear them from the bleachers, from Bryson's grinning mug, they could tell the faculty member had conceded defeat. Afterwards, Bryson was handed his victory slip, and then went off to the other side of the gym, sitting far away on the opposite wall's bleachers, talking with his Gastly.

"Tyler, you're up. Come receive your battle Pokemon," one of the open proctors called, waving to him so he knew which arena he was to report too. Kat and Hunter looked up and smiled, ushering the younger boy up and over.

"Good luck. You'll need it," Kat teased, waving to her younger friend. Tyler made a face at her and jogged over to the proctor. He was a bit apprehensive about his battle, but who wasn't when their adventure was on the line? But then again, being Tyler, with his cocksure attitude, this feeling didn't last long. Especially with the idea of showing off his battling skills in front of his friends.

He got up to the student's end of the battling area, staring down the proctor on the otherside. He was handed a pokeball, standard issue, and the judge, having completed the duty of providing the Pokemon, went over to the sidelines to score Tyler on his performance. Tyler, ignoring the watching eyes of the judge, sized up his opponent.

The proctor just happened to be a new breeder from another region, who had travelled through the Sinnoh region, and was acclaimed for her skills with Pokemon. She was hired to work in the ranch area, but due to a lack of staff available due to most of them hosting a test in a class, she was called in to battle the students.

The breeder sent out a Starly, smiling lightly at her choice of Pokemon.

"Go- Pokemon!" Tyler stuttered, unsure of the Pokemon he received. The white flash faded around a tiny Squirtle. Said Pokemon smiled and turned to the trainer, excited and hoping that it was Kat. The Squirtle crossed its arms and pouted. "Squirtle, use rapid spin!" The Squirtle sat down and curled into his shell, ignoring Tyler's order.

Kat and Hunter moved closer to Tyler to watch his fight a bit more. Hunter chuckled at the Squirtle's actions and Kat shook her head, moving to the side of the arena. Hunter tilted his head and watched her curiously.

Tyler whined a little and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Come on, Squirtle. Please," the young trainer tried to coax the Pokemon. Squirtle continued to ignore Tyler. Kat reached the side and cupped her hands about her mouth.

"Squirtle! Hey, boy! Listen to Tyler! You can't always get what you want, Buddy. It's just for one battle! All ya gotta do is beat the Starly and you're good. I know you can do it, Squirtle! But you have to listen to Tyler for now!" she yelled, managing to suede the little turtle Pokemon from his shell and to his feet.

Tyler deadpanned, a little embarrassed that he wasn't able to get Squirtle to listen. However, the feeling soon passed and he had his cocky grin plastered to his face. Pleased that the little blue Pokemon would now listen to him, Tyler re-gave his earlier command, "Squirtle, use Rapid Spin!"

Squirtle, albeit still not liking the idea of being commanded by this strange blonde human, complied with the command, hoping to show off his strength in-front of Kat. The turtle Pokemon charged towards it's opponent, before jumping into the air, and quickly withdrawing into his shell, beginning to turn quickly. Squirtle hit the ground, continuing to spin at a high speed, the speedy shell advancing towards the proctor's Starly.

The proctor, aiming to avoid damage this early in the battle, gave orders to her Pokemon. "Starly, fly up into the air!"

The starling Pokemon complied with it's master's orders, and, flapping it's wings, ascended into the air. Tyler, seeing their ploy to avoid damage entirely, decided to show his opponent that he wasn't going to let it be so.

Watching Squirtle quickly spin through the area where Starly once was, he shouted another command, hoping his luck was particularly strong that day. "Squirtle, aim up and behind you, and use Bubble!"

His temporary partner complied, halting his spin quickly, and flipping upwards, coming out of his shell in the air. Aiming in the direction that Tyler had instructed and seeing the flapping Starly, Squirtle unleashed a stream of bubbles from his mouth, which impacted with the flying Pokemon.

The Starly took a good bit of damage from Squirtle's attack, causing it to drop in altitude quickly from it's place in the air. The proctor squeaked from her side of the arena in surprise, and quickly shouted to her partner, "Starly, use Quick Attack, and use the speed to rise back into the air before you hit the ground!"

The Starly recovered it's senses after hearing it's trainer's cry, and a white glow began to cover the flying Pokemon, before it used the move as instructed and used the power of the move to recover itself and not hit the ground, preventing further damage. Tyler silently cursed in his head, hoping that the Starly would've KO'd itself on the ground, letting him win in one quick move. However, it appeared his luck wasn't that strong today, and then saw the Starly using the Quick Attack to head straight for Squirtle.

Seeing this, Tyler's mind whirred, his thoughts going at a mile a minute. He had to pick a move quick, or Squirtle was going to be hit full-speed by Starly.

Reacting quickly, he stuttered out, "Squirtle, use Withdraw!"

The tiny Pokemon quickly withdrew into his shell again, this time using it for defense, instead of for an attack. The Starly ran headfirst into Squirtle's hard shell, and immediately regretted it. It flinched for a second from the pain of hitting the hard surface, and that was all Tyler needed to take advantage of the situation.

Seeing the opponent's Pokemon stalling for a second Tyler quickly gave Squirtle a new objective: Tackle. "Squirtle! Quick, while Starly's not moving, use Tackle!"

Kat's little, blue friend, hearing Tyler's opportunity taking command, quickly un-withdrew from his protective covering, and rammed his head into the body of the now stunned Starly. Starly, having already taking a heap of damage from ramming head-first into Squirtle and the Bubble attack, couldn't handle the ramming of Squirtle's cranium into it's torso, and promptly fainted on the spot.

The proctor, shocked at how short the battle was, declared Tyler the winner, and gave him his slip, and told him to wait on the bleachers.

Tyler let out a celebratory yell, but was then approached by the judge, who wanted to see if the Squirtle, who had originally not listened to him, would work with another trainer.

Squirtle was quickly re-drawn into his pokeball, much to Kat's ire, and was taken to give to one of the students who were just now starting to come into the gymnasium.

Tyler quickly walked back to the bleachers, before getting into a cocky pose, and asking, "Who thinks they can top that?"


End file.
